While any proposal too radical could easily be squashed in the current House by a simple up-or-down vote in principle, the political pressure against voting down any measure that alleges to cut spending and shrink government up front will likely be problematic even for conservatives.

For all his deviousness, this move is very cunning on Obama's part. If Congress agrees, then it relinquishes power and submits to Obama's leadership and authority. Obama comes out looking good. If Congress balks, it can be accused of not wanting to cut government size and spending after all. Congress looks bad. Heads he wins, tails they lose.

This is not just a matter for legislation. We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.

He previously served as Director of the National Cyber Security Center. Prior to that Beckstrom was Chairman and Chief Catalyst of TWIKI.NET, a company which supports TWiki, an open source wiki. He was also co-founder, Chairman and CEO of CATS Software Inc., a derivatives and risk management software company which went public on NASDAQ and later was sold to Misys PLC.

Operating systems such as Unix, Linux and Apple's MacOS rely on this database to coordinate times across different geographic regions, as do the Oracle and MySQL databases and many programs written in Java, Perl and PHP.

Most disturbing about this “flash” message, however, is its stating that the only known submarine currently suspected to be in the Mediterranean Sea is one, or possibly two, possessing kilo-class torpedoes belong to the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN).

Even more striking is the potential income derived from opium production. Export earnings from Afghan opiates may be worth $2.4 billion - equivalent to 15 per cent of GDP. Such vast sums cannot easily be earned in other ways. "Opium is therefore a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption," said Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC.

Now mic-checking, while intentionally disruptive, is an completely peaceful tactic that has been employed in a wide-variety of settings during the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The CEO of Wells Fargo, representatives of JP Morgan Chase, Newt Gingrich, and even President Obama have been targets of this practice. But not even President Obama responded with as much aggression and ignorance as the San Diego police officers in attendance (with full blessing of the Mayor).

Not content to simply escort the OWS protesters out of the venue, at least three were arrested and charged with felony conspiracy for their actions.

Within the next few years, the maximum limit for cash payments will be further reduced. Mr Crombez hopes that by the end of the current legislature the limit will stand at 3,000 Euro.

The government is to adopt a phased approach to reducing the limit, as it wants to ensure that it will be respected.

"As far as I'm concerned, if we are successful in ensuring the limit is respected, it can be reduced still further in the future, as has been the case in some other countries."

Concrete plans for a control mechanism are being discussed within the federal cabinet. The measures currently only apply to goods. Services such as those offered by the liberal professions like solicitors are currently exempt.

Mr Crombez is considering extending the limit to cover services as well.

Next year, the borough council plans to introduce parking fees based on the length of the car. This means the owners of large cars will end up paying twice as much to park than the owners of small runabouts, the paper says.

Your clock is accurate and you're not caught in a science fiction. Clock time might not signify a particular time of the day, as we know it, if a proposal to amend the global standard of timekeeping is passed at a conference in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva in mid-January.

The proposal, put forward by the United States, suggests a switch to International Atomic Time (TAI) from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the timekeeping standard currently followed across the world.

"The proposal is backed by most developed countries, and a vote is likely at a conference of the ITU in mid-January," said Dong Shaowu, a senior researcher of the National Time Service Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Chinese delegation to the conference.

The more precise TAI might bring technical benefits to some industries, such as satellite navigation and air-traffic control systems, according to Dong.

"Even if this proposal is approved, it will not impact public life in the short term in a big way. However, some industries that require high precision of time will be affected," said Liu Changhong, a senior engineer at the National Time Service Center.

The decision to be made in Geneva may be the most important since 1961, when the world adopted UTC, based on Greenwich Mean Time - the cornerstone of international timekeeping since 1884.